Seconds precious as Britain fights to be centre of time

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Like Samoa, Tokelau (pop about 1,500) went straight from Thursday to todayMichael Bradley/Getty Images

Leo LewisBeijing

Published at 12:01AM, December 31 2011

China’s soaring aspirations in space may mean that time is running out for
Greenwich Mean Time. Beijing has appeared to shift its stance over how the
world should set its clocks.

Britain’s benchmark of global timekeeping was already under threat. Some of
the 193 nations sending delegates for a vote on the issue in Geneva next
month want the 127-year-old system of calculating time from the Earth’s
rotation phased out.

At least 12 members of the United Nations’ International Telecommunications
Union (ITU), including the United States, Germany and France, are spoiling
for the demise of GMT in favour of time